A/N: I don't own Batman or Gravity Falls

Prologue: Fall of the House of Pines

Gotham City, 1863, Halloween Night

Fall to the edge of the ever-growing city that was Gotham, there stood a mansion. However, this mansion did not belong to one of the more illustrates families such as the Waynes or Copplepots, but to a different family entirely, one that set its roots here long along during the war of eighteen-twelve. The family had high hopes to make themselves as big as the famous families that had helped to shape Gotham into the beacon of modernity that it had become. However, unlike those families, this family had a less then respectable name to it, and that was mostly due to the head of the family.

His name was Allister Pines, and he was a man not to be trusted.

While Allister was supposedly a kind and loving man to his two children after their mother died of polio, he was not welcome among the people of Gotham due to how he portrayed himself in the public eye. Allister was a ruthless businessman and had the corner in the tobacco markets as far as New York and parts Canada and didn't care who he had to step on to keep his wealth. It wasn't just his life as businessman that earned him the ire of Gothamites, but also the rumors that swirled around him about his personal life. It was said that Allister and what few friends he had practiced witchcraft in the confines of his mansion. Not only that, but it was also believed that Allister and his cohorts worshipped dark forces in exchange for money and power.

Hi few companions were also powerful members of the iconoclast as well, all of whom had their hands in deplorable works. They were masters of slave trading, prostitution, opium and other acts that be looked down on. Like Allister's family, they were all collectively looked down upon by not just the five families that helped to build Gotham, but by the public on a whole for the lengths of brutality they would go to attain their wealth. Even worse, Allister and his allies were in full support of the Confederacy ever since the Civil War had begun despite their home city was on the side of the Union.

The tension between the people of Gotham and Pines finally came to a head when several children began to go missing. People where at first suspicious of the head of Pines manor and his friends of being the ones behind the disappearances, but they stayed silent and allowed the police to continue the investigation on their own. That was until earlier today when a couple of fishermen reeled in the severed head of one missing children from the lake. It didn't matter that there was no evidence that tied the corpse to Allister, all that mattered was that the city wanted justice.

Allister could see the fire from mob's touches from his bedroom window as they made their way toward his mansion. The ousted millionaire didn't run or even feel an ounce of fear in his being. He knew that his actions would bring him to this moment, and he and his friends were more than prepared for it. He went back down stairs to rejoin his cohorts who were currently waiting for him in a foray.

Their names were Hoyt Gleeful, Maurice Ramirez, Sebastian Valentino and Madison Madix, and together with their distant friend in the west, Roland Northwest, they made up a group known as the Inner Circle.

"Just a matter of time I suppose" Hoyt mentioned to his companions as he poured himself a glass of brandy "It couldn't be helped"

"We would've have had more time to prepare if someone hide the bodies better" Madison sneered as she glanced over to Maurice who glowered back at her

"That's enough" Allister commanded sternly "we can't turn on each other now. We all knew that this would happened at some point, that's why we set up our little back-up plan"

"Is everything set?" Sebastian inquired

"Yes, Roland has everything ready for you all" Allister assured his friends "I've already sent my children west. They'll be safe from all this, as will all of you"

"What about you, Allister?" Madison asked in concern

"I will stay behind while the rest of you make your escape out of the city" their leader explained

"No!" Madison denied "without you all of our plans will fall apart!"

"Only set back, my dear Madison" he replied "So long as our bloodlines endure, then we will succeed one day"

He then reached out and gently stroked the side of her face.

"My heart couldn't bear the pain of seeing you being hung" he said in a bittersweet tone before pulling his hand away "Now go, all of you, before the mob gets any closer"

Allister's companions looked at their friend with sadness in their eyes. They all dreamed of doing wondrous things for the world together, but Allister was right, so long as their bloodlines survived, so to would their plans. Together, the other members of the Inner Circle stood together and joined hands as they stood in a circle and said their mantra one final time as a group.

"We are the circle" they said in unison

With that, Hoyt and the others quickly made their way out of the back of the building. Madison gave one final kiss goodbye to the man she had grown to love before forcing herself to flee with her friends, leaving Allister to face the oncoming lynch mob on his own. Several minutes after his allies had departed, Allister heard the sound of someone pounding furiously one his front door. He straightened out his shirt and vest as if he was about greet guests into his home. He walked over to the door and opened it up to find a large mob of nearly fifty enraged townspeople, all of whom were carrying torches, pitchforks, clubs and other tools that they intended to use on the businessman. At the forefront of the mob were the heads of the most influential families in Gotham, Jeremiah Arkam, Abraham Cobblepot, Ezekiel Elliot and Johnathan Wayne.

"And to what do I owe this visit at this hour, gentlemen?" he asked the mob causally

"We just want answers, Allister" Johnathan replied "There's a mystery afoot, and we need your help to decipher fact from fact"

"There is no debate here, Wayne!" Cobblepot snapped "We know the bastard and his friends killed those children, and we'll bring him to justice!"

The mob cheered in agreement, but Allister remained unafraid in the face of all the rage around him.

"Yes, I did it" he confessed "I do not regret what I have done, for it was for the greater good"

"The greater good?" Johnathan repeated in disbelief "Are you mad?! What good could come from this madness!"

"If you only knew, Wayne" Allister informed him "One day soon this world will be changed for the better and on that day, you'll all wished you had joined us!"

The crowd was in almost in complete shock upon hearing how calm Pines was to justify the murder of such innocence. Soon however, their shock quickly turned to rage.

"I say we kill the bastard!" one of the members of the crowd shouted, to which the mob agreed

"No! we will not lower ourselves to his level!" Wayne protested "He is sick and needs help! He should be brought to Jeremiah's Asylum! Yes, he should face justice, but one before a court, not a mob!"

But the millionaire's pleas were ignored as one of the members of the crowd drew his gun and fired, striking Allister in the torso. While the crowd cheered as the sight of the murderer stumbling backwards, Johnathan was modified beyond words. Allister quickly limped back into his mansion and slammed the door before his attackers could get a hold of him. Johnathan pushed past several people to try to get to Pines before following him into the mansion. Allister maybe a monster, but Wayne was determined to see this man brought to justice by the law and not by a gang of vigilantes. Johnathan quickly locked the door behind before seeing a trail of Allister's blood that lead up to the upper of the mansion. Meanwhile outside, the rest of the mob pounded of the front door in an attempt to break it down before Cobblepot's voice rang out through the crowd.

"Burn it down, lads!" he commanded

"Are you mad, Abraham?" Jeremiah shouted "Wayne is still in there!"

"If that fool wants to die with that monster then so be it!" Cobblepot shot back before calling the crowd "bring it down!"

The crowd began to fling their torches at the mansion, sending the building up in flames in mere minutes. Back in inside the building, Johnathan made his way up the stairs that lead to the second level. But just as he reached the top of the stairs, Allister surprised with a war cry and swipe across Wayne's cheek with a switchblade. The ambush caused Johnathan to lose his footing and tumbled down to the bottom of the stairs. He fought through the pain his leg as he forced himself back up as Allister charged down the stairs with murder in his eyes.

The madman came at him with another swing of his knife. Luckily, the head of the Wayne family managed to evade the blade a delivered a powerful punch into Allister's jaw, knocking him back. But he quickly recoiled and lunged at him once more with his knife at the ready, this time jamming it into his opponent's shoulder, making Johnathan shout in pain before shoving him off his person.

"Dammit man I'm trying save you!" he shouted before gritting his teeth to yank the knife out of his teeth

"But I've already been saved" Allister said before leaping at him yet again "Let me show you true salvation!"

During their fight, the fires begun to consume the mansion, burning away at the structure at alarming rate. Johnathan had been too caught up to save Allister that he completely about the mob setting the mansion aflame. As the fire continued to grow and rage around them, Johnathan and Allister to battle one another in a life or death fight. Allister knocked his enemy down to the floor with a strong jab to the stomach. He attempted to stomp on the man's neck, but John kicked him the away before he could.

Just as Allister tried to make an attack, a chuck of burning wood fell from the ceiling and on top of him, breaking his back upon impact. The pain from the fight and heat and smoke around Johnathan began to make him feel dizzy, but he fought through the agony he felt and tried to make his way to Allister to save him. suddenly, more of the ceiling fell from above, blocking John's path to Allister. It was at that moment that he had to make a painful decision, one that he would regret until his dying day.

Fighting through the flames and smoke that surrounded him as he raced toward the one of the windows. As he did, he heard the gargled, dying voice of Allister Pines through the roar of the flames.

"My family will one day return to Gotham, Wayne!" he warned "and when they do, they will destroy your family! Do you hear me?! The Pines will have their revenge!"

With all his strength, Johnathan jumped through the window and back outside were the mob was cheering at the sight of Pines Manor being engulfed in flames, some of the members of the mob noticed Johnathan making his escape and rushed to his aide. After being pulled away from the fire, the head of the Wayne family could only look at the sight before him as Allister's final words to him repeated in his mind.

As the fire rose higher into the sky as the mansion fell in on itself from the flames, Johnathan noticed something flying over the wreckage of the building as if it was a bad omen.

It was a bat…..